Larry Ellison on September 10 became the richest person in the world after Oracle Corporation’s stock surge triggered a massive gain of $101 billion in his fortune.
The extraordinary gain in wealth, which is the biggest single-day gain ever, helped him end Tesla chief Elon Musk’s almost 300-days reign as the world’s richest individual. The jump in fortune is mainly attributable to Ellison’s 41 percent stake in software company Oracle.
So, who is Larry Ellison?
Ellison is the chairman and chief technology officer of tech giant Oracle Corporation, which he co-founded in 1977 with a total investment of $2,000.
Born in June 1944, Ellison attended various colleges including University of Illinois, University of Chicago before moving to California to begin his career.
Ellison stepped down as the chief executive officer of the company in 2014 after stint of 37 years. He moved to the Hawaiian island Lanai, which he had bought in 2012 for $300 million, in 2020.
According to his bio on Oracle's website, he races sailboats, flies planes, and plays tennis and guitar.
Ellison’s Oracle fortune
Ellison owns 41 percent stake of the company, mainly through share buybacks. The company’s shares jumped 40 percent on September 10 over demand surge for its cloud services from artificial intelligence companies.
The stock was up 39.7%, hitting a record high of $339.69, set for its biggest one-day percentage jump since 1992. The company will add about $278 billion to its market valuation, taking the total valuation to around $948 billion, if gains hold, and bringing Oracle closer to the coveted $1 trillion-dollar club.
Its shares have risen 45% so far this year, outperforming the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks and the broader S&P 500 index, with investors betting big on AI-driven cloud firms.
The increase lifted his total fortune to $393 billion, ahead of Musk who sits at $385 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It’s the biggest one-day increase ever recorded by the index.
Musk became the world’s richest person for the first time in 2021 before losing the title to Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault. He reclaimed it last year and had held it for just over 300 days.
Where else does Ellison have stakes
Ellison also sat on the board of Tesla between 2018 and 2022 before quitting as a director. He owned 45 million split adjusted shares before stepping down, according to Forbes.
He also owns 50 percent of media giant Paramount Skydance, Forbes reported.
With agency inputs
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